OGA, Japan — The Japanese have long taken an easygoing, buffetlike approach to religion, ringing out the old year at Buddhist temples and welcoming the new year, several hours later, at Shinto shrines ...

Traditional Buddhist prayer altars are a breathtaking sight. The shrines range in size and ornamentation, but some of the most elaborate ones are spectacles of gold, painted wood, and statuettes that ...

Buddhism was attractive in this context as a diplomatic tool way to indicate that Japan had joined the Sinosphere. By becoming a Buddhist country like China, the country’s leaders believed, Japan ...